City Shadows Arc 5
by Zephyros-Phoenix
Summary: Sequel to Arc 4 - DragoxOC, OCxOC. Five years have passed and the Strikers are enjoying life as agents of Section 16 under Captain Black. However, when a new boss takes over, the Strikers find themselves in the middle of a conspiracy against all demonkind. While seeking the truth, they must track down other half-demons across the world.
1. Five Years on the Job

**Finally after more than a year off, I'm getting back to this. I feel bad for neglecting this. I mean, I haven't done much writing in ages. I blame Voltron, super obsessed with that right now XD And maybe somewhere deep down I was worried this arc wouldn't be as good as previous ones. But, I felt that way about arc 4 and y'all seemed to like that one, so what the hey, I might as well just dive on in.**

 **To new readers, this is the fifth installment of an ongoing story so you will likely be confused. I recommend starting from arc 1 if you want to be able to follow along.**

 **General disclaimer: I do not own Jackie Chan Adventures, only my characters and so on.**

* * *

Deep in the desert, a tiny olive lizard skittered across rocks and sand towards a small man-made, makeshift facility brightly lit with floodlights. It seemed an odd place for people to set up a facility, since this was the middle of nowhere and the nearest town was miles away. The entire area was surrounded by electrified gates littered with warning signs for trespassers to keep out and armed guards patrolled the grounds. The lizard harmlessly slipped by the patrolling guards, who barely even noticed the presence of the quick and tiny creature. As it reached one of the doors leading inside, they suddenly opened and two armed guards emerged, aiming their rifles out into the night before focusing on the lizard in front of them.

One of the guards sighed in a huff as he lowered his rifle, "It's just a lizard, tons of them out here in the middle of the desert."

"Still, it tripped off the motion sensors," the second guard said, lowering his rifle as well. "Security thought it might be a drone."

"Well, it's clearly not. Come on, it's hot as hell out here and we can't be wasting our time every time a lizard crawls across the sensors. I need a drink." The first guard slipped his fingers into the side of his helmet, scratching at the side of his temple without taking the entire helmet off. He was tired, exhausted and bored guarding this facility from, well, nothing!

"Who fucking cares? We get paid by the hour!" the second guard exclaimed.

Both guards turned their backs on the lizard and began to walk back inside the facility. However, the moment they turned, the lizard suddenly morphed into a tall, green humanoid dragon with dark red eyes. He roughly grabbed both guards by their heads with each of his scaly hands and hit them together, instantly knocking the pair out.

"Not how I would have done it, but effective," a voice commented from the dragon's earpiece.

"Yeah, because if you would have done it, you'd have just used your handy shadow powers to slip right by everyone. Not all of us have convenient stealthy powers, you know," the dragon remarked, pressing his index and middle finger into the earpiece.

"'Let me take the lead on this one, Linos! I haven't been on a mission in ages!'" the voice exclaimed in a mocking tone. "That's you, that's what you sound like, Drago."

"I don't sound anything like that!" he shouted, before quickly remembering to keep his voice down.

"I don't sound anything like that!" Linos remarked in a voice that perfectly mimicked Drago's.

Drago grumbled under his breath as he heard his friend copy his own voice. "...Show off."

"Better get a move on. I've got eyes on a pair of guards about to turn the corner in forty seconds."

"On it, heading inside." Drago quickly turned invisible and stepped into the facility as the doors leading to the desert night shut behind him. "So, what are we here for again?"

"Didn't you read the mission dossier?" Linos scoffed in disbelief.

"I skimmed it," Drago muttered quietly.

"Skimmed it?"

"Mala's usually the one who reads the dossiers. It's so boring and complicated! She sums it up nicely for me: tells me where to go, who to hit, what to grab."

"Well, it's obvious who calls the shots in your relationship," Linos remarked.

"Hey, you want an intelligence agent, you talk to Mala or Tim. I'm a field agent; I just go where they tell me to go and do what they tell me to do."

Linos chuckled, "You really are a Xiao Gou, aren't you?"

Drago rolled his eyes, not having heard his birth name in so long and choosing to ignore his friend's joking implication by changing the subject."So have you thought of where you're gonna take her?"

"I was thinking of taking her to that Italian place on 5th."

"Oh don't go there, they totally skimp on meatballs, they charge extra for the bread and their butter is always solid as a rock. Last time we went there, I had to use my powers to melt it so I could actually spread some on the bread," Drago remarked, smiling at the recollection. Out of all his friends, he enjoyed using his powers the most for leisurely and, as some of them put it, "trivial" things. He didn't see the point though. If he had powers, why shouldn't he use them for whatever he could use them for? Being a half-demon was his advantage and he wasn't going to hold back for anything.

"Ok, how about the sushi place up on Imperial Street?" Linos suggested next.

"Who does that kind of thing in a sushi restaurant?"

"Fine, Mr. Expert, where do you think I should do it?"

"Just do it at the same place I did it," Drago said casually.

"I can't do that!" Linos exclaimed loudly.

"Why not?"

"Drago, I am not going to ask Mavis to marry me in the same restaurant where you asked Mala!"

"What difference does it make?"

"How is it that I know more about human girls than you? Girls don't typically like sharing such an important experience like that. Besides, if I just take her to the same place you took Mala, I'll just be tagging on to what you've done. It's uncreative and tacky!" Linos explained.

"Well, excuse me for trying to be helpful! And what does it matter where you do it? You know Mavis doesn't care for fancy restaurants. She likes the simple things."

"Because everything has to be perfect when I ask her! I don't want this to be like every other date we've gone on. I want this to be different… special."

Drago rolled his eyes; this wasn't going anywhere and Linos was clearly looking for some insight that Drago couldn't provide. "Ugh, well I've said my two cents. You want romantic advice, ask Mala or Arran."

"Fine, fine. Make a right at the end of that hallway. It should take you to the center of the facility." Drago turned right at the end of the hall on Linos' call.

"And what exactly am I going to find when I get there?"

"We're here to investigate some bizarre energy readings the satellites picked up. 'Otherworldly' is how the analysts described it. So you know what that probably means: a rogue demon up to no good."

"Or it's probably just a rift," Drago commented.

"Rift?" Linos asked.

"Yeah, fluctuations of energy in the barrier that separates this world from the Netherworld sometimes cause little tears between the fabric of space. They don't stay open for long and they can show up at random. That's usually how some lesser demons and spirits are able to slip through in this world. How do you not know this, you grew up in the Netherworld!"

"Well, I never saw a rift, ok? After I almost got myself killed by Dong Xin, mom kept a close watch on me and never let me out of her sight. How do you know so much about them if you grew up here?" Linos remarked.

"My old man used to go on about them all the time. After he got banished in the first place, he'd spend all his time trying to find one of these rifts. They're usually too small for a big Sorcerer Class to slip through, but if they can stabilize the rift with their magic, they can make the rift bigger and keep it open longer. The problem with that is the longer you force a rift to stay open, the more energy builds up. Eventually the tear will just forcibly snap closed and all that energy will shoot out on both ends. It's only a theory, but I'd rather not run the risk of finding out for sure, you know?"

"If that's the case, how have we not been invaded by an army of demons yet this entire time?"

"The magic in the barrier is constantly moving like a river. Rifts will appear out of nowhere and disappear within a few seconds. A demon has to be incredibly lucky to find one. Some will show up and go completely unnoticed," Drago explained.

"…Which brings one question to mind: If this is a rift, how has it been open this whole time? It would have naturally closed on its own hours ago right?" asked Linos.

"Unless a demon on the other side is stabilizing it." Drago hoped he would be wrong. If a demon was stabilizing the rift from the Netherworld, it usually wasn't good news, but, this desert seemed awfully demon-free with the exception of himself and Linos. Drago neared the center of the complex, where he saw a large machine apparatus built around the fluctuating bright red and green tear. The energy was moving and cascading around wildly, like the tear was trying to close on its own, but these machines were forcing it to stay open. And from the looks of it, the crackling energy surging out from the tear, the build up of energy that this machine was preventing from being naturally released, the ignorant humans didn't understand that this thing was about to blow if they kept it open any longer.

"What've you got?" Linos asked over the comm.

"Looks like they've built some kind of device to stabilize the rift, keep it open longer than normal."

"And that's the otherworldly energy the techs picked up. Let's shut it down and get out of here before any demons start showing up."

"On it," Drago answered. He dashed out from his cover and, with his Demon Weapon gauntlets, shot out three solid flame blades that sliced through the device. The portal fluctuated uncontrollably and wildly. Drago smirked as the rift began to slowly close, but his eyes widened in alarm as a tiny demonic hand reached out from the rift. A tiny imp demon poked its head out from the rift, but Drago quickly punched the imp in the face and back through the rift. He grabbed the ends of the rift and forced the portal to shut. "All right, it's shut," he reported.

"Good, let's get out of here. You've got bogeys coming in from behind you," Linos replied.

"All right, I'll meet you at the rendezvous." With that, Drago instantly transformed into a small bird and took off before reinforcements could close in on him. Up in the sky, the small green bird was joined by a large brown bat demon. Red eyes met and with the snap of the bat demon's fingers, a swirling black vortex opened in the sky just ahead of them and closed as the pair disappeared into it.

* * *

"Please?"

"No."

"Oh come on!"

"Mavis, I told you a thousand times already: no!" Mala spoke sternly into her cellphone as she walked down the street with a tray of coffee cups in her other hand.

"Oh, what's the harm? He'll never even notice you were there!"

"Mavis, I am not going to read Lin's mind to see if he's planning on proposing to you!"

"Ugh, what's the point of having all these extra psychic powers if you don't even use them!" Mala heard Mavis sigh heavily on the other end of the line.

"Mavis, I'm not going to have this discussion with you again," Mala sighed.

"Fine."

Mala could almost hear Mavis pouting through the line. She absentmindedly rolled her eyes and smiled before continuing the conversation. "So how long are you suspended from active duty?"

"Black says about two weeks. No missions for me, just boring old desk duty." Mala heard a slam coming from Mavis' end, which she interpreted as Mavis plopping onto her desk in defeat.

"Well, that's what happens when you cause thousands of dollars in property damage," Mala remarked.

"Hey, I got the job done though, didn't I? Ugh, Mala, before the boredom kills me, I want you to."

"You'll be fine. Tim's been on desk duty since we started and he's fine," she reasoned.

"Yeah, because Tim's an indoor cat. His frail and fragile little heart can't take too much excitement. But me? I'm the energetic outdoor dog that needs constant stimulation!"

"You know, I would be insulted by that… if it wasn't true," Mala heard Tim remark. When they first started, while everyone else had been cleared as field agents, Tim was more than happy to take a desk job. It was enough excitement for one lifetime, he had said. So, paperwork and safety behind a desk was all the comfort he could want. And with all the life-threatening, near end of the world situations they had their hands in, they couldn't blame Tim for wanting to take it easy. Occasionally, he would also provide remote assistance from Section 16. It was Section 13 that they were originally recruited into, but Black had been given clearance to establish a new section to focus solely on "otherworldly" and mystical threats.

"Well, you can use this time to catch up on all those reports you haven't finished. You've gone on so many missions and you've never once finished a report for it," Mala chastised.

"Oh, oh yeah I'm super hard at work on these reports…" Mavis said as she mashed a few buttons on her keyboard.

"Ok, now I know you're just pressing random buttons on the keyboard, Mavis!"

"What, you read my mind?" Mavis asked.

"No." Mavis yelped in surprise and turned around in her chair to face Mala.

"You really have to stop doing that!" Mavis cried.

"Or, you need to work on your awareness," Mala remarked. She took one of the coffee cups out of the tray and handed it to Mavis. Mavis gladly took the cup and inhaled deeply, smiling and sighing in satisfaction at the chocolate smell. "Oh, and one bear claw," Mala added, taking a small paper bag with the pastry inside and setting it on Mavis' desk.

"One of those for me? I could use a pick-me-up," Liam said as he and Drago came over to the pair. Mala held out the tray for him and he rotated the cups around until he saw one with his name written on it in black marker. Drago came up next to her and wrapped one arm around Mala's waist before planting a firm kiss on her lips, which she passionately returned.

When they parted, Mala asked, "So how was the mission?"

"Piece of cake," Drago scoffed.

"Except for the fact that 'agent in command' here didn't read the dossier," Liam remarked.

"Hey, we still made out okay! Closed the rift and everything!" the fire demon beamed proudly.

"Those rifts have been coming up more and more lately, more so than usual," said Remy as he joined the conversation. "Even Ren's got her hands full shutting a few of them."

"My brother still with her?" Drago asked, to which Remy nodded. "I suppose he's found his calling. Good for him," Drago smiled.

"Still, it's odd for so many rifts to be sprouting up like this. We've been lucky so far that nothing big has come through one," Remy continued.

"Yet," Tim cautioned. "It's only a matter of time before a rift shows up next to a Demon Sorcerer, and I'm betting there are a few Sorcerers in the Netherworld who would be eager for revenge against us."

"Yeah well, they'll be in for a serious butt-whooping!" Mavis exclaimed, punching her fist into her other palm.

"Agents." The six turned to see Captain Black approaching them, wearing his signature red turtleneck and black trenchcoat.

"Captain Black," they greeted in unison with a respectful salute.

"Excellent work with the rift you two, especially you Drago. You've come a long way from being in one of our containment cells," Black remarked with a smile and low chuckle. "I'll admit that I was reluctant with bringing you on, but Ms. Callahan made the terms very clear and my superiors wanted me to do whatever I had to to recruit you all." When he finished, Black extended his hand out to Drago. "You've done good, kid."

Drago smiled and firmly shook Black's hand. There was a time long ago where Drago would have taken advantage of this closeness to Black to kill the human, but Drago was different now. "Thanks."

Black pulled his hand back and continued speaking. "Well, I have news regarding the future of this Section."

"Good or bad?" Mala asked.

"I'll let you decide that," Black answered.

"That means it's bad," Mavis remarked.

"Well, my superiors are very pleased with how much Section 16 has accomplished. So I'm being promoted!"

"That's great!" Tim exclaimed.

"Wait for it…" Mavis muttered quietly, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"But, that means I'll no longer be head of Section 16," he said sadly, almost disappointed that he would be leaving.

"There it is," Mavis remarked with a click of her tongue.

"You mean you're leaving?" Mala asked, her eyebrows furrowing.

"I'm afraid so. I'll be leaving to establish and oversee a Section 17 while someone new will be sent to run Section 16 in my place."

"Who are they sending?" asked Tim.

"They wouldn't say, but I know whoever it is, they're supposed to be coming in today," he replied, checking the watch on his wrist.

"And as usual, your powers of perception fail you, Augustus." Captain Black quickly spun around in time to come face to face with a woman with long, curled orange hair tied in a loose low ponytail while thick strands covered half of her face, obscuring one of her eyes while the other - golden in color - looked down at all of them in stern judgement. Her gaze was unsettling to say the least, as if she was somehow instantly learning everything little thing about them in the few seconds they was looking at them.

"Cassie… You're the one they sent to replace me? Now I see why they wouldn't tell me about it," Black remarked.

"Cassandra," the woman corrected with a stern look. "And of course they sent me to replace you. Who do you think has been cleaning up after all the messes you've caused like that one in San Francisco several years ago? Do you have any idea how much work goes into the damage control alone? Putting back together everything your agents break?"

"For your information, I was promoted. That's why I'm leaving."

Cassandra scoffed. "Oh please, they promoted you because you're good at starting things up, never maintaining them, doing the hard work that no one else wants to do. That's why they've brought me in." As Cassandra finished, her gaze drifted to the Strikers standing behind him. "Employing children, Augustus? Really? Has your judgement waned with age?"

"Cassie, let's not do this here. If you have a problem with me, then deal with it with me. Don't take it out on my agents!"

"They're my agents now, as of today, so I will treat them how I see fit and I will thoroughly see to it that they are qualified to be working as government agents. This isn't some fantasy camp where children get to play make-believe and be superheroes and secret agents. There are real consequences and I will not have this section be compromised or shut down because children were allowed to run about as they please. And I sincerely hope you haven't compromised our security by employing these demons," she spat.

Drago growled under his breath and took a step forward, only to be stopped by Mala. "Drago, don't," she cautioned him.

"Drago?" Cassandra's eye peaked in interest. "Ah yes, the famous son of Shen Du, am I correct? According to the reports, the San Francisco incident was your doing and ended with you getting sucked back into the Netherworld, which begs the question of how you are here now."

"Yeah, well a lot's changed since then," Drago replied, matching Cassandra's glare with one of his own.

"Evidently." She turned away from them and craned her head to gaze at the facility. "As of this moment, I am in charge of Section 16. You will address me as Captain Fox. These two are my associates, agents Alison Blackwood and Robin Fletcher," she said, introducing the dark haired woman clad in black and silver hair man behind her. "They answer only to me and act on my orders. If they tell you to do something, you do it. Make no mistake: today is the beginning of a new era for Section 16." Fox took a step forward, but flinched back as An, in her German Shepard guise, emerged from behind Liam. Her dark eyes were narrowed and her lips curled back, revealing her razor sharp fangs as she let out a low and menacing growl aimed directly at Fox. "What is that?" she spat.

Liam bent down and gently pat An's back to calm the beast. While she ceased her growling and sat next to her master, An did not break her fixed gaze from Fox. "Sorry, she's just not used to strangers."

"Just keep that mutt away from me! I hate dogs," she muttered in annoyance before turning to Black. "Make sure your office is cleared out by the end of today, Augustus. I'd like to be moved in as soon as possible."

Black let out an obvious sigh of frustration. "I'll get right on it."

"Good," she smiled triumphantly before her expression softened and she uttered her next words quietly. "How's Holly?"

"She's doing fine. You'd know that if you actually called her once in awhile. She's your daughter too. Would it kill you to pick up a phone once in awhile?"

"I'm a busy woman," Cassandra replied nonchalantly.

"Evidently," Black shot back, mimicking her earlier remark. Before she turned to leave, he gently placed his hand on her shoulder to stop her. "They're good kids, Cassie. Just give them a chance."

Cassandra wordlessly turned away and marched off, followed closely by Alison and Robin. Once she was out of sight, Mavis spoke, "I do not like her."

"She's my ex-wife," Black said.

"I still don't like her," Mavis reaffirmed.

"I don't blame you. Cassie's always been… difficult to deal with. She's ambitious and dedicated to her goals, but she's stubborn and thinks she's always right."

"How exactly did you two end up married?" Remy asked.

"We weren't together for very long and frankly we weren't very happy when we were together. When we split up, she let me take Holly, our daughter. She didn't even put up a fight for custody, like she didn't care. I think that's part of the reason Holly won't talk to her either. Children can be more perceptive than we give them credit for and, well, Holly could figure out that her mother didn't seem to care about her. I've tried reaching out to her, but she always just pushes me away. She won't let anyone get close. Let's just say, I took the hint. Cassie's tough and critical, but she's efficient. She cares about getting the job done right, and you could say that the job is the only thing she cares about," he lamented sadly. "Don't let her get you down, especially you three," he said specifically to Liam, Mala and Drago.

"Why us?" Liam asked.

"Cassie's not particularly fond of demons or magic," he said, with hesitation at first.

"Then why did she agree to run the one section dedicated entirely to mystical threats and magic?" Mavis asked.

"I don't think I'll ever understand what goes on in Cassie's head. Even when we were married, I couldn't tell what she was thinking. I won't lie to you; serving under Cassie, I mean Captain Fox, will not be easy. She will be harsh, critical and take every opportunity to belittle you and make you feel like a failure. Even if you're done nothing wrong or your assignment was a success, she'll find something to focus on and turn it against you. Don't let her beat you down. She's already formed an opinion in her head about you, that you're just kids playing spy games; prove her wrong. It was a real pleasure working with you all these past few years. You've all come a long way and I know you've all got bright futures ahead of you." He paused for a moment before giving them a firm salute, which they all returned.

"Thank you, sir," Liam said firmly.

After Black gave the rest of the entire section his goodbye speech and walked out of the facility, Mavis quickly remarked, "Well, this is gonna suck. You guys wanna bail?"

"Do your paperwork, Mavis," Tim scoffed, rolling his eyes as he returned to his desk.

Mavis rolled her eyes as well and reached for her bear claw, only for Mala to snatch the bag away. "Hey! My bear claw!"

"You can have it when you're done your reports!" Mala called as she walked away with the pastry hostage.

* * *

 **So like with the last ones, I'm kinda making this up as I go along. Probably not the best way to go about writing a story, but hey, it's worked for me. The major events are already plotted out, but if anyone has ideas they'd like to share, please feel free :)**

 **Next chapter: Life at Section 16 gets harder with Captain Fox in charge.**


	2. Not What It Seems

**Christ, it's been like six months or something. So very sorry. Voltron has occupied me almost completely now and unfortunately is taking away attention from this . But I will try to deliver and wrap up this story! After that, I may actually write up a Voltron story. It would basically be an insert with the characters I made up and I haven't done an insert story in a long time... Thoughts?**

* * *

Mavis sat at her desk, slowly typing away. She reached towards the large stack of papers in her inbox and stamped one of the many reports before depositing it into the bare outbox. She leaned back into her chair and let out a long, tired sigh as her gaze lingered on the stack of reports she still had to go through. Desk duty was proving to be far more abysmal and boring than she thought and worst of all, it felt like time was going by ten times slower. She leaned her head back and groaned, "Indoor cat…"

"You're doing fine on your own, Mavis, just keep doing those reports," Tim said, not taking his eyes off his computer for a second as he stamped another form in completion.

"But it's so boring…" she groaned again.

"I know, Mavis, but you can get through it," he encouraged in a monotonous tone, sounding very much like a broken record on repeat. Even in the days before they became involved with demons and magic, Tim would be hard at work on their school assignments while Mavis would act like she was afflicted with the plague. Behind him, Mavis turned around in her chair, resting on it on her knees while she held onto the head of the chair where she rested her chin. She gave Tim a wide-eyed look with pouted lips, but Tim didn't even turn in his chair when she cleared her throat, louder each time, trying to get his attention. "I know you're giving me the pouty face, Mavis and it's not going to work. It hasn't since middle school."  
Mavis narrowed her eyes and pouted her lips more, this time with a groan of annoyance. "Fine," she muttered, turning back around in her chair. After what felt like an eternity of more torturous typing, Mavis let out another frustrated cry and pushed herself away from her desk. "I gotta take a break!"

"Mavis, you've only been working for five minutes!" Tim called after her, but she was already long gone. With a sigh and shaking of his head, he returned to his work.

In her quest to delay her paperwork as much as she possibly could, Mavis joined Remy and Drago as they watched the training simulator. Inside, Alison and Robin were busy sparring with the simulation drones, effortlessly destroying them with a single hit, not even needing to look to land a hit for some. "Wow, they're good," Mavis commented as Alison knocked one of the drones into the air with her staff while Robin shot it with his arrow.

"Yeah, they're also hogging the simulator!" Drago growled, crossing his arms and tapping his foot impatiently.

"Why aren't you on a mission?" Mavis asked.

"Because the new boss decided to bench us," Drago muttered.

"What? Why? And how come I didn't hear about this?"

"Because you're still suspended, remember?" At that reminder, Mavis hung her head with a sad sigh. "Apparently, she doesn't want us 'kids'," Remy said with air quotes, his voice very evidently dripping with sarcasm and resentment towards their current situation, and the woman behind it, "out in the field until we've gone through the proper channels and evaluations: firearms, psychological, she's making us go through every evaluation in the book and it'll take weeks for those to all be finalized."

"Pfft, 'kids'," Mavis muttered, "We're well into our twenties. And besides, we already passed all our evaluations when we started!"

"Fox said she doesn't want there to be any bias," Drago said.

"Bias? Why would there be bias?"

"She thinks Captain Black was too lenient, so she's having us all evaluated again but under her standard," said Remy.

"If you ask me, I think she's just doing this to get under Black's skin," Mavis commented.

Drago's eyebrow cocked up in curiosity. "What makes you say that?"

"Oh come on, you saw how the two were together. It ain't a mystery why they split up. You saw how hostile she was to him, even when he was trying to make small talk about their kid. Twenty bucks says she's the kind of broad to find something wrong with every little thing."

"I don't understand how two people who dislike each other so much could even be married in the first place!" Drago exclaimed.

"Well Drago, not all of us are lucky enough to find our soulmates as kids and then get them to fall in love with you after aggressively stalking them when you're older," Mavis said casually.

"Hey, I did not stalk Mala!" Drago protested in offense.

"Whatever, I wasn't there." Mavis shrugs her shoulders and moves on. "The point is, we humans aren't as perfect as we like to think. One day, two people could love each other and think they'll be together forever, and the next day, they'll hate each other's guts and do whatever they can to hurt each other."

"If this is how Fox and Black are with each other now, it's hard to imagine what it might have been like when they were married," said Remy.

Drago sighed. "I just don't get it… How can two people want to be together and then just not?"

"I'm afraid that's just how the world works, Hotshot. Love doesn't always last forever and nowadays most marriage don't make it past the three year mark before they call it quits."

Drago couldn't help but frown a bit at that remark from Mavis. Love was a big deal to him; he had been given a second chance to be with Mala again and he wouldn't squander it. He clawed his way out from the depths of the Demon Netherworld and earned her forgiveness, earned her love. She was the most important thing in his life and he couldn't have been happier when she said "yes" to his proposal. But, now hearing Mavis talk about how love could fade between two people no matter how strong it seemed at first, he couldn't help but feel a bit scared both for himself and his friend, the same friend who was asking for his advice and input on how to propose to Mavis. "You don't… think that could happen to me and Mala, do you?" he almost hesitated to ask, but he couldn't stop his mind from already coming up with the worst case scenario.

"Not a chance; you two are solid," Remy cut in, "You and Mala have a deep connection that goes back to childhood. Not a lot of couples have that." Remy's words couldn't be more true to Drago. When he met her for the first time, everything in his life changed. Born from two worlds, never truly part of either and always an outcast. Meeting Mala changed that for him, for now there was someone just like him, someone who understood what it was like to be on the outside, who understood that desire to belong and feel like they belonged. More than anything, he didn't want to lose what he had with her.

"Don't overthink it, Hotshot." Mavis places a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "I said 'most' marriages, but you and Mala aren't like most couples. The fact that you're both half-demons aside, you two have been through a lot. It would take something earth shattering to drive a wedge between you two."

"Somehow, that doesn't make me feel any better," Drago remarked.

"Never said it would, but my point still stands!"

Remy chuckled, speaking up to intervene. "Just don't overthink things. As long as you and Mala talk and don't keep secrets from each other, you'll be fine. Most marriage fail because the two people just stop communicating and just end up resenting each other. Meanwhile, until all this paperwork gets sorted out, we need something to occupy our time." Remy crossed him arms as he returned to watching Alison and Robin absolutely obliterating the enemy simulation.

"And it's hard to do that when someone is hogging the training simulator all the time!" Drago growled in annoyance.

"Well, this seems boring," she sighed, walking away and waving with the back of her hand without turning to face them. "I'll catch up with you guys later!"

Mavis returned to her desk to reluctantly resume her work, only for another agent to plop a stack full of papers into her inbox. With a tired sigh of dread, she fell forward onto her desk and dropped her face right on top of her keyboard, pressing numerous buttons and causing the document she had open to be littered in random letters, not that she cared.

She only sat up with a yelp of surprise when she heard another loud plop of files land on her desk. Standing over her desk, glaring down at her was Alison, who must have just finished in the simulator - no doubt making Drago and Remy happy as they could finally blow off some steam. Mavis had stared down Demon Sorcerers before without so much as a flinch, but something about this broad just… felt off. She froze, almost like she was hoping that if she stayed still, Alison would just walk off without even seeing her, but that wasn't the case. Alison leaned forward, sliding a whole pile of files towards Mavis with her fingertips. "Fox wants this done by the end of the week."

"And, what are they?" Mavis tries to peek at the files, but Alison still kept her hand firmly on them. All she could make out was the labels on the side of the files, names, but not much else. No doubt more mindless paperwork, but what really caught Mavis' eye were the four files Alison did not drop on her desk, instead the agent still held them firmly in her arm. Her hand was gripping the edge of the files so tightly that her fingertips were starting to crease the file folder. Whatever was in those files, Alison didn't want anyone taking a peek, that was for sure...

Alison narrowed her amber colored eyes at Mavis, who couldn't ignore the shiver that went up her spine. How could it be that she could stare down the face of a demon without a fear, yet this broad made her tremble with just one look? "Just have it done by the end of the week." Mavis' eyes drifted over to the white stripe in Alison's hair and how out of place it looked in her dark hair. It stood out more than anything and she couldn't help but wonder what the story was behind it. But, from the vibe she was getting off Alison, personal details weren't something she would just openly share. Realizing that Alison was waiting for her response, Mavis simply nodded her head, prompting the stern raven-haired woman to step back and saunter off.

Mavis kept watching until she was sure Alison was out of sight, before sighing and picking up the files the agent had deposited on her desk. As she expected, more paperwork. She grunted and sighed, pushing the files away from her and not caring if some contents spilled out. She didn't sign on for this job to do paperwork. She had skills, useful abilities and she was a good field agent! She was being underutilized! She stood up from her desk, intent on making her case but before she could, she saw that Alison was already heading into Fox's office, along with Robin. Alison in particular, was not carrying the files she was guarding so closely before. Mavis now could not help her mischievous and sneaky desire to sneak a peek at these mystery files. Whatever they were, they must have been important, judging by how tightly Alison was guarding them. Moving as normally as possible so as not to draw attention to herself, she ducked into the small office that had been assigned to Alison. The blinds were already closed, so she didn't have to worry about someone seeing her from outside. Her desk was completely clean, meaning she must have put the files away in one of her drawers. Mavis opened the top first, but it was only filled with the standard collection of office supplies that every desk had. She tried the second drawer, but that one was locked.

' _Hmm….'_ she thought, ' _There's got to be a way I can get in this drawer.'_ She knew she was no good at lockpicking, but… She reached into her pocket to pull out the rest of the coins, holding them in a small pile in her hands. She could never help but get sentimental every time she looked at them. These tiny little magical objects were what brought the six of them all together as a group. This was where it all began. Sentiment would have to wait though. She didn't know how long she had until Alison would come back and she wasn't sure if she'd be able to talk herself out of this. Time to get creative. First, get the drawer open, the Bear Coin's super strength should take care of that. With a squeeze of the coin in her palm, she ripped the drawer open, damaging the locking mechanism in the process, but exposing the contents within: four plain looking files. She placed them on the desk. "Serket, N., Glass, L.  & L., Koizumi, J., Evans, A.," Mavis read the names on the files out loud as she slowly fingered through them. She took the file at the top of the pile, "Evans, A.". When she opened the first file, she saw what appeared to be a basic dossier profile for the blonde girl, aged sixteen, born in Wales, father unknown, mother deceased, raised by her maternal grandfather in Norway, moved back to Wales after he died. Mavis couldn't help but cock her head to the side in confusion. This seemed like an odd file for Alison to have, even if it was for a potential recruit. From what Mavis could see, this girl had no extensive training or skill in anything that Section 16 would even be remotely interested in. She didn't even have a criminal record, nothing of any significance that would set off any flags, good or bad! To confirm her suspicions, she reached for the other files. Koizumi, J.: juvenile delinquent, Glass, L. & L.: pre-teen runaways and Serket, N.: supermodel? These were just normal people, as normal as normal people could be! Whatever Alison was looking into, it had to be on Fox's orders… Which begged the question: why was Fox looking into these people? This was a woman who benched all of them because they were children in her eyes, yet more than half of these dossiers were of kids younger than herself! What did they have that warranted her interest? From these files, they appeared as normal as any other civilian, but if there was one thing Mavis had learned in all these years, it was that something looking normal didn't make it normal.

"Something ain't right about this…" Mavis muttered suspiciously. And something truly didn't feel right about this and the fact that she already didn't like or trust Fox only exacerbated her suspicious feeling. Unsure of how much time she had left, she quickly took as many pictures of the files contents with her phone before placing them back in the drawer. Only now there was evidence of her tampering, since the drawer lock was still busted. But, Mavis had a solution for that. She swapped out the Bear Coin for the Jellyfish, using it's time alteration to restore the lock to its original condition from before she messed with it. Before she opened the door to leave, she carefully peeked outside from behind the blinds to make sure the coast was clear. There was no sign of Alison, likely still in Fox's office for whatever meeting they were having, so Mavis took her chance to get out. She decided not to go to her friends just yet, for she knew what they would say: that she just didn't like their new boss and would have to get used to her and that too many years in the spy business has got her seeing conspiracies everywhere. That, and they would no doubt scold her like a child for snooping in someone's personal belongings. But before she'd roll up her sleeves and dive into this, she'd need a pick-me-up.

In the break room, Mavis finished stirring her hot chocolate and dropped the spoon in the sink. She reached into the fridge for a can of whipped cream and sprayed a little puff of cream on the surface of the hot drink. She paused for a moment, examining the size of the puff before spraying more until the entire surface of the beverage was covered in whipped cream. She paused once more before spraying another puff of cream directly into her mouth. She nodded in approval and licked her lips in satisfaction before returning the nearly empty can back in the fridge.

As she made her way back to her desk, she noticed the door to Fox's office was still firmly shut. Whatever they were doing in there, it was taking a rather long time. Mavis narrowed her eyes in suspicion as she slowly inched towards the head office. She didn't go directly up to it however, and instead took a seat in an empty cubicle. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the Bat Coin, giving it a firm squeeze to activate it's sonar powers. Mavis focused her now enhanced hearing on Fox's office, picking up the conversation in perfect clarity as if she were present in the room.

"I don't see why we don't just get started right away," Alison remarked.

"Everything's already going according to the plan, Sonny, relax," Robin replied.

"I just want to get started as soon as possible! We shouldn't be wasting any time."

"And we won't," Fox interjected. "I appreciate your enthusiasm, but all I need is for you to exercise some more patience, Alison."

"I've waited long enough! I want the boy!" Alison shouted with a firm slam of her fist on the desk. "I want to make him pay for what he did!"

"And you will have him, when the time is right! Right now, they don't suspect a thing. Nobody does and we must take advantage of that for however long it lasts. Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting for this? How long I've been working towards all of this? I've spent more than half my life putting every bit of effort into this plan, making sure every little piece is in place; I've been working for this since before you were even born and I will not have it spoiled by your impatience!" Fox barked, while Alison remained silent. "I promised you the boy in exchange for your help. Once I have what I want, you are free to do with him what you want. So, will you be a good girl and wait for the perfect moment to make the kill? Or will you be reckless and impatient like your father and suffer the same fate as him?"

Mavis heard Alison sigh loudly. "I will await your instructions," she muttered quietly.

"Good. And you will have your target as well, Robin, in due time."

"I can wait. It doesn't matter to me whether it's now or later, I'll get the bastard who killed my mother. Just tell us what you need us to do."

"Very good. By the time this is all over, you two will have your revenge and I will have my army. What have you done with the files?"

"I've gathered the relevant information so far and pinpointed their rough whereabouts. The boys will be harder to track, all three of them are street rats, but I've narrowed down their last known locations. Why would you want to make an army out of their lot anyway?" Alison scoffed. "Nothing but filthy half breeds is what they are."

"Your father underestimated their potential, where is here now? Where is every Demon Sorcerer to face a half breed?" Again, Alison did not answer, so Fox continued. "The raw force and power of demon magic coupled together with human creativity and that annoying trait that drives them to fight against all odds even when the cards are against them. Just one of them could take down a single Demon Sorcerer or his entire army. Who wouldn't want an army of their kind?"

"So where do we start?" Robin asked.

"Where every army starts: recruitment." Fox ordered. "We'll start with the five we've already discovered and work on branching out further from there. Magic and demonkind have touched this world since the beginning of time. There could be far more hybrids than we think. Demon Sorcerers aren't exactly known for monogamy."

"What if they refuse to join?" asked Robin.

"Make them see why joining is an excellent idea and in their best interest." Mavis couldn't see Fox's expression as she said this, but the way she delivered the line definitely gave Mavis a feeling that Fox was giving them the okay to use deadly force to secure compliance.

"What about the ones here?" Alison asked. "The little self-righteous, self-proclaimed heroes? I doubt they'll come along quietly."

"We will focus on them later; the less they suspect, the better. When the time comes, they'll be given the chance to join us. Until then, start looking for recruits. We have appearances to keep up."

As their conversation ended, Mavis put away the Bat Coin and poked her head out from behind the cubicle and eyed Alison and Robin with narrowed eyes. She took a sip of her hot chocolate, causing some of the whip cream still on the surface to stick to her upper lips. With her index finger, she wiped the cream off before sucking it off her fingertips. "Suspicious…" she muttered quietly. She may not have been an intellectual or magical genius, but Mavis knew how to read people. And based on that conversation, Fox was interested in half breeds. If that was the case… why remove two half breeds already in her employ from active duty? She rushed to the bathroom in order to view the photos she snagged of the files, not wanting to risk someone watching over her shoulder and seeing what she was looking at. She opened up her photos and began looking at the files. Before she could only skim them, but now with a copy of her own, she could take her time to read the information thoroughly. At first, there seemed to be nothing in common among them - with the exception of the two twin boys of course - but other than that, there was nothing visual connecting these people together. They didn't look alike, they weren't even in the same countries. Just when she was about to give up, she zoomed into the picture of one of the individuals, noticing a small detail that others might have overlooked, the sure sign that someone was either a demon in disguise, or at least part demon. Linos, Drago and Mala had the same trait when they assumed human form and sure enough, all five in these photos had dark red eyes.

* * *

 **Next chapter: Mavis relays the information she "found" to her friends and tries to convince them that something nefarious is afoot.**


End file.
